Image Credit: Charlie Krupa/AP Images Because the Super Bowl can’t possibly make do with just one diva, two powerhouse songbirds kicked off this year’s game: Lea Michele and Christina Aguilera. Michele went first to warble out a (rather muzak-ically arranged) rendition of “America the Beautiful.” Dressed in a demure white pea coat and beige trousers, Michele sounded fine to my ears and seemed perfectly poised, her voice betraying little evidence of any nerves she might have been feeling. But let’s face it: Girl was merely the warm-up act for the real diva on hand — even if the camera did cut to ex-prez W and the missus Laura in the stadium during her song.
I suppose by Xtina standards, the “five-time Grammy winner” looked pretty modest as she took the stage to turn our national anthem into her usual melisma-palooza, but come on. Christina doesn’t get out of bed without the promise of at least a little razzle-dazzle. Hence, the bedazzled stilettos that offset her black power suit. To go with her power pipes! And mic stand? She don’t need no stinkin’ mic stand! That would get in the waaa-ahh-aaa-ahh-aaa-yyyyy of all her vocal runs! The lady’s a belter. And belt out the “Star-Spangled Banner” she did.
But… oops! In all her wailing, Aguilera flubbed a line. About 50 seconds in, instead of “O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming,” she sang “What so proudly we watched, at the twilight’s last gleaming.” Yikes. Poor Francis Scott Key is turning in his grave. (UPDATE: Aguilera said in a statement following her rendition of the song: “I can only hope that everyone could feel my love for this country and that the true spirit of its anthem still came through.”)
So Michele gets points for singing the lyrics correctly. But for pure star, wow-we’re-at-the-Superbowl-let’s-put-on-a-show! power, there’s no denying that Xtina lives for that. She entertained. And she made more football players cry.
Also: She had the better shoes.
What do you think? In the battle of the divas, who takes the glittery Superbowl Songbird Princess crown?
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Agreed. Chris may have messed up a line, but she played it off like the super pro she is. Plus, that proves she was singing live. Even the greatest of singers have lip-synced the anthem at the Superbowl bc it’s so nerve-wrecking, but Chris belted it out like the monster power vocalist she is. Lea was totally weak sounding to me. There was nothing redeeming or memorable about her performance at all.
Christina was a parody of herself.
She was horrible. She still doesn’t know what to do with her voice.
As far as I’m concerned, neither was any good. Lea sounded like she was at a school recital.
I thought Christina’s voice was wonderful. I thought she did better than usual.
I agree, she was horrible. What has happened to her voice? She totally oversang — I wouldn’t have recognized our national anthem’s melody from her rendition. A few runs are fine but when you do one every other note it no longer sounds like the correct melody. Maybe that’s why she forgot the lyrics hahaha
UGH…some ppl just emit skankiness to the max and C.Aguilera is one of them (ditto Mariah Carey)
Christina just seems so used and abused.
@FromChicago – you hit the nail on the head. Christina is about the biggest waste of an awesome talent that I’ve ever seen. Instead of using her voice to make real music, she instead tries to be “edgy” or “skanky” and play to an image, instead of actually using her natural abilities.
I have worked with Christina. She doesn’t listen to anyone! She wants every run, every twisted note in every song! When you’re going through the takes, she wants the most complicated runs left in the song! You sit there thinking, what about the melody? So last night was par for the course. Sad that she messed up the words. Sad the she couldn’t edit herself to sing a more refined rendition. And she was a little strained last night! Land of the free didn’t leave me feeling anything but relief that it was almost over! Find your way back Christina. You are WAYYY of the yellow brick road!
Meh, the National Anthem is a parody of what this nation has become. “Land of the free and home of the brave”? Please.
Agree, Christina was truly truly awful, Lea was not very good at all, but the black eyed peas were horrible (also what was up with the sound, you’d think it would be good for the superbowl)
Yes, the black eyed peas made my ears bleed even with all that auto tune. They should have had the cast of glee do the half time show. At least they can sing without auto tune and sound good.
The Peas took hideous to a new level. How embarrassing.
More lol! You think the Glee kids don’t use autotune? They’re vocals are over-processed to the point of sterilization!! Half of them can really barely sing on par with, say, top AI contestants, but are made to sound halfway good through studio trickery.
grr..plz excuse my “they’re” that should be a “their”
That’s very true about most of the Glee kids. Lea has never had that problem though. She has pure vocal talent, find videos of her live, she’s just as good (if not sometimes better).
i’m sorry but are you kidding Eric and Sam? i was fortunate to go see them live too! i thought it would of been lip-syncing, dancing, all sorts of stuff too but they CAN really sing. Ryan Murphy is no dummy.
No, Eric and Sam aren’t kidding, and neither am I. The voices on the show are definitely studio-assisted, and that includes Lea’s.
Aguilera totally blew. I thought the BEPs were good. Fergie however sounded horrible.
Oh please…the Glee kids are just as bad if not worse than BEP’s auto-tuning. The Glee kids have as much assistance, but they (and Ryan Murphy) just pretend they sound that good.
PS I saw Lea in Spring Awakening, and her voice cracked several times (in addition to sounding like kareoke gone bad), so I never understood the hysteria over her, since she isn’t that good.
Straight up, the glee kids ARE NOT auto-tuned. There is a huge difference between auto-tuning and audio overlays. In any ensemble musical video production they sing their songs in a studio and then are overlayed during the scenes. But just because they are overlayed does not mean that they are auto-tuned. Contrary to popular belief just because people sing well does not automatically mean that they are auto-tuned?
Thank-you Eric. The glee kids are not auto-tuned. Anyone with a background past grade 3 piano & elementary choir can tell the difference between auto-tuned & actual voices. Maybe you’re tone-deaf??
You can’t play off messing up the lyrics to the anthem. But she sang the word brave for longer than 6 seconds, so she won me a prop bet.
She didn’t sing the word “brave”, she screamed it.
She put in so many runs, I wasn’t sure the song would ever end. It reminded me of the movie Mystery, Alaska, where the home team is playing the New York Rangers hockey team in an exhibition game outside in Alaska. To get an advantage, someone gets Little Richard, who is scheduled to sing the National Anthem, to stretch the song out as long as possible so that the Rangers will get cold. It ends up taking forever. A funny moment. I thought Christina’s performance was awful, and I like her in general.
Pros don’t flub lines to “The Star Spangled Banner” at the SUPER BOWL. It was an amateurish, unprofessional attempt at best.
She looked horrible too. Her fat face almost distracted me from her performance.
Seriously, when did Christina become a fattie fattie fatterson?
ITA with ETM! She looked seriously bloated. I wonder if she was drunk…
THIS. Amen, Razor.
Christina isn’t fat. That is not fat. It’s comments like these that make young girls have eating disorders. As to her singing, well that did suck. She just screams really loudly. No melody. Lea sounded good.
Steph, she’s definitely a little overweight. Who knows whats going on in her life, but having extra cushioning like that is only natural if you eat more than a natural diet, period. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. I think you, and everyone really, have just become so accustomed to looking at the fat, over-indulging and consuming frenzied people of America that you’ve forgotten what a healthy weight looks like. Granted, it’s relative to each individual, but we all know Christina is naturally thin. I’m not ragging on her, because her business is her own, but I’m arguing with you on principal, because being fat is NOT OK.
She had a baby a couple of years ago. That changes a woman’s body. Lay of, people. She looked fine. Her performance of the national anthem, though, was terrible. I’m a Canadian and even I knew she’d messed up a line.
*Lay off
Well DEAN–Are you a perfect looking man?? I doubt it very much!! How dare you makes such hurtful statement about people. I am sure your outsides are as ugly as your insides.
LOL I said the same thing to my friends last night. She’s looked bloated for months now and I can’t figure out if she’s just gained weight or if she had some sort of plastic surgery.
@Amy Leigh
I think it is her (reported) non-stop drinking. She looked thinner in Burlesque (in the previews anyway – no way I’d go see that!)
And I read that Christina was horrified and embarrassed by the flub. But, I think it’s really not a big deal. I bet the majority of people didn’t realize it. And she sang her heart out. She was in tune..
Frankly, both were good.
Listen — I don’t care how much of a powerhouse singer you are…when you are asked to sing our national anthem, the least you can do is sing it with the right lyrics. I’d be crying too if I heard that on the field.
Is she smoking now too? Her voice sounded really rough. If your going to sing the National Anthem you’d think that you’d get enough rest so that you could sing it in key.
1. I lover her and even saw Burlesque twice but Xtina was awful tonight
2. She messed up the lyrics. No excuses, this is the biggest US tv ever of the year, you have to be a pro or stay home.
Their should be a law against anyone adding off key trills or “look at me” additions to the National Anthem. Sing is to the tune as written. It made us cringe.
Yeah, sing it to the British drinking song that the lyrics were set to! If it is good enough for the Brits to down a few beers to, it should be good enough for the US to use as their national anthem!!
I agree, There are plenty of other songs that an artist can screw up by adding their interpretation.
Good one Jayna. I always feel awkward during the national anthem because in my opinion it’s not a very good song, but I then I feel pangs of guilt that wishing we could get a better anthem might make me unpatriotic. Oh well.
Can anyone just sing a pure simple melody? I cringed at her trilling self-indulgence.
Actually, the Star Spangled Banner was a poem later applied to a musical score, so it was not “written as” a song. But since civic and historic education is lacking in this nation, and empty declarations of patriotism are a substitute for actual demonstrations of patriotism, I wouldn’t expect the average American to be that respectful of our nation’s history to know that. That this is such an item of debate is Exhibit A toward proving the superficiality of the average American “patriot.”
Yes! I give Christina props for singing LIVE — Jennifer Hudson, Beyonce, Carrie Underwood, even Whitney all lip synced. And she DOES know the lyrics; she’s sung it a million times. Give her a break. How many people here could do better in that situation? Umm, 0%.
FYI Carrie Underwood sang live last year. But the others did lip synch.
No, she didn’t. She was backed by a big band and choir and it was recorded. Not that I blame any of these great singers, it’s recommended. I’m sure Christina was like “no, I got this”. Which gives me even more respect for her (and her glittery shoes).
do you have ears????? carrie was COMPLETELY live last year and because she is a pro she sang the right words and didnt reduce every line to trills out of tune and SCREAM at the end. It was the worst national anthem in years. Bring back the dixie chicks, now that was amazing. people need to open their ears, how can ANYONE say she sounded good? she destroyed it. no if and or butts about it.
I thought the singers were required to sing along to a prerecorded track in case of technical difficulties. While the problem wasn’t technical this time, it might be a good idea to reinstate that policy. It would eliminate any chance of flubs like last night’s.
Carrie Underwood was as LIVE as LIVE gets last year. She was also in tune, wasn’t over the top and knew all the words. Usually people don’t sing it live, but she did. They should have just booked her again for last night. Would have been MUCH better.
I don’t know what you were listening to but Carrie Underwood sang the Star Spangled Banner a cappella at last year’s Super Bowl and it was 100% live.
stupid stinkin’ dumbass beatch
Typical for a female writer to focus on shoes rather than a clean performance.
Well, her shoes were HOT!! So go Fog yourself!!!
@Fog cue – writer was just focusing on the best part of Xtina’s performance. Maybe if she had concentrated on the words instead of how she was going to turn each word into a paragraph, she would have sung it correctly.
Who knew The Star Spangled Banner had 2 million notes in it? Hideous – one of the all-time worst renditions. I doubt that she is able to sing a song simply all the way through.
What a stark difference between the two. Lea’s performance was absolutely beautiful, it made me tear up. Christina’s performance just made me want to throw up. Lea knew how to convey emotion, Christina was just so much commotion.
couldn’t agree more. I love Lea tonight
Oh please. Lea was contrived as always. Christina had genuine emotion, despite making a mistake with the lines. Vocally, that’s Christina. You knew what to expect, so to whine about that is nearly frivolous.
I dislike Glee…a lot. And I like Aguilera’s voice. But Lea was so much better yesterday. I wish she sang the anthem.
Aguilera sung to show off her voice. Her voice didn’t match the pitch of the song. Lea highlighted the song; hence, correct wording and pitch.
I had to watch Whitney’s version to get Aguilera’s out of mind.
Are you kidding me? Lea Michele’s performance was robotic at best. Neither woman had her finest hour last night.
right on baby!
I agree with Torok.
Please…even the most ardent fan had to realise how bad Christina was tonight. Never mind messing up her lines, the rendition was absolutely painful. I absolutely agree that she has become a parody of herself. Enough with the vocal gymnastics, you have a great voice but warbling through as many notes as you can devalues every performance.
Hasbeen over-rated, over-exposed singer should just retire and go away!! tee-hee!
They both were not stellar in their performances, but Lea sounded like a poor karaoke singer. It was just mind numbing.
You can NEVER sound like her but I could give you some good tips. christina costnantly uses a vibrato when she belts sometimes she dosen’t. She tends to oversing like yeah,oo,ahhs stuff like that. DON’T MIMIC her it would only make you look stupid. just learn to have a good vibrato and holding notes.I just gave you some of her musical style but you truly need to find your own voice because if you wanna get into the muscial industry and try to sound like christina then bad news for you christina would still be out there and copying her seriously won’t help
Christina is an amazing singer, but she needs to work with someone who will give her honest feedback. She lost the tune with all the runs. And I bet we are stuck with lip synching in the future because of the lyrics flub.
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They were both awful. Musically, the worst Super Bowl ever.
Caterwauling–she sounded like a feline in heat.
Her voice is great, but please just SING THE SONG. Self-indulgent wailing.
Christina’s glory notes made me cringe they were so forced and out of tune
Anyone who can’t remember the lines to our nation’s national anthem, at the Superbowl of all places, is NOT the best performance of the night. She was a joke.
When did she get those ‘Oak trunks” for legs and the Kabuki
white makeup?
When did she get those ‘Oak trunks” for legs and the Kabuki
white makeup? Her and Brittany need to sign-up for NBCs Biggest Loser!
Aguilera has been singing the anthem professional for half her life. What was she on to mess up the line? Was it just ego or inebriation?
Lea Michelle flubbed her lyrics too: It’s not “purple mountain majesties”, it’s “purple mountains majesty”.
Nope, it IS “purple mountain majesties”. Check it out.
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Classy Sun 02/06/11 7:33 PM
Agreed. Chris may have messed up a line, but she played it off like the super pro she is.
The “pro she is”???? Really? As soon as she flubbed up she couldn’t get finished fast enough, that was very apparent. If she concentrated on what she was singing and why she was signing it rather than running up and down the scales like she was out of control (wait … she was out of control) she likely wouldn’t have messed up.
Count me in the “not impressed” column …
Aguilera was terrible. Not just the messed up lines, but she just sounded bad.
Agreed, she was terrible. And shes not cute anymore either.
Next?
She looked pretty hard, and not in a nice way.
Jeff-I am sure your NOT cute anymore either!!
Jeff-your personality is not cute anymore either-if it ever was.
It pains me to say it, but Michele was better.
She was awful. I couldn’t even take the poll and pick one over the other.
Lea sounded like a “glee” club member….not a big time solo artist.
Thank you!
And you’re supposed to show off your diva bravado during a ceremonial performances? Lea had a choir-backing and she managed to maintain a good balance between them. Christina, on the other hand, diva’d out.
She’s not a big time solo artist, so why should she have to sound and perform like one? Christina’s been around a lot longer and should have had a bigger performance. I don’t think it’s fair to compare the two. They’re at different points in their careers.
Messed up lyrics and her voice sounded ROUGH. Wow, Christina was bad.
and she butchered the “melody” if she was even TRYING to sing it…
Whoever doesn’t flub their lines. I mean, really. If you don’t know the anthem, you shouldn’t be singing it, regardless of sparkly shoes.
Christina’s been singing the national anthem since she was 6 — please, didn’t she perform at the NBA finals twice last year?? The line was a fluke, every singer knows what it’s like to go into auto-pilot. I feel bad for her.
I agree. She has performed at a lot of events over the years. And a lot of performers have flubbed the lyrics to the National Anthem. It happens… I personally didn’t like all of the runs she put in though. She lost the melody.
Love me some Xtina as much as the next person but Lea totally nailed it! National Anthem for ms Michele next year please!
No thanks! She was whack.
Wow, you’re bitter.
I’m honest.
You really need to change your name — because classy you are not.
And you figure that how? By my opinion of which starlet sang better at the superbowl? Go fly a metal-spoked kite. In a lightening storm.
Yeah, that comment pretty much confirmed it.
Predictable response;-)
Point, Classy.
Classy – more like ASS-y.
lol Fog cue
Enough with the Recording “STARS” singing the Anthem, etc. Give it to school kids from the area. At least they know the correct words
Good idea.
Or a church or community choir. That would be nice, too.
(except the Little Couple) is shorter than I; heowver, I have never felt short. (Except for the time when I was student teaching and was standing in the lunch line with a nearly 7-ft. basketball player.) You need to find where they trade those top-of-the line vehicles and find a good deal on a used one.Maybe your mother could place the call herself. That may be more powerful and leave you out of the conflict mix.Still hot here, although we are to have isolated thunder storms throughout next Tuesday.
Yeah, that way thin-skinned fake patriots on the internet can get all worked up at kids and bash them on the Internet rather than a recording star who is used to enduring criticism. Really bright idea there.
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I have to give the crown to Lea. Singing the correct lyrics is a bonus, but I really did not like the melisma on the National Anthem. Christina’s rendition annoyed me (and I generally like her). I thought Lea’s was beautiful.
Not really. Her friend auto-tune clearly was not present today.
Do you even know what you’re talking about?? Auto-tune? Someone must’ve wondered in from a Britney Spears forum or something. I doubt that Lea or Christina need “auto-tuning”. Whatev.
Christina was off-key for half the performance, including the awful 25 second scream at the end, which was flat.
Seriously, Lea has performed live SO many times and has a gorgeous voice. She doesn’t need autotune.
That final note from Xtina was AWFUL! Gah, I almost put the television on mute.
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Yes she messed up the lines, and she over sang as usual. But thats her thing. Overall she sounded good. If this were someone like Beyonce or GaGa who is at the top of their game this would be nothing. But since its someone who’s had some career struggles this past year this is gonna be all over the place.
Agreed. People need to give her a bit of a break.
No.
No we don’t. She is a professional singer who knew well in advance and had time to practice. She gets up in front crowds for her concerts all the time and sings HER songs without messing them up. It isn’t too much to ask for her to do the same to the Star Spangled Banner.
Actually no CJ, she messes up the lyrics to her songs frequently. I remember watching her perform Hurt on tv and she did the exact same thing she did today- she sang part of the first verse again during the 2nd verse. Lots of artists forget their lyrics. My point was that if it was anyone else it would blow over.
I agree. I also doubt Christina’s singing style had anything to do with her messing up. We all know that’s how she sings. like it or not. Flubbing the lyrics was probably just an honest mistake in the moment of things. She still had footballers shedding tears, so I think she did something right.
I agree. She is still more talented then Lea. Yes Lea is very good too, but you have to be deaf to think that Lea sings better. So what if she messed up a line. She’s not perfect, it could happen to anyone. If Lady GaGa had messed up the line it would not have been as big of a deal. I think Christina nailed it.
Not very patriotic are you? Sure who cares if the the National Anthem gets screwed up…it isn’t like it has any special meaning to the USA.
The problem for me is not that she flubbed the words. It’s that she flubbed the words because she was so self indulgent in her performance. She wasn’t giving voice to the song. She was using the song to hear her own voice. Tacky. Lea Michelle is a completely different type of artist. She’s a theatre girl. She’s in service to the material, but the arrangement she sang was absurd. She sounded great, though.
Self indulgent is correct. It’s the national freaking anthem. Sing the song as it should be sung. It’s not some pop song to “make your own”. Not to mention, she looked like a busted *ss Cindy Lauper.
Christina at her worse is much better than Jay Z’s wife at her best…
If Christina had not already sung the “National Anthem” many times before, then there wouldn’t be a problem. But she has! You would think that she would know the words by now. Youtube has a video of her singing the anthem at a hockey game when she was 11! And she sang it perfectly!
Lets keep it real… they both stunk.
Or you just don’t know good vocals when you hear them. Screwed up lyrics or not, Christina is the best in the industry right now, and she proved it. Lea was great, though she didn’t show her full vocal strength.
She proved she thinks more about performing than singing.
It’s a personal preference. I think they both stunk and I do know good vocals when I hear them. Neither of them had it tonight.
Christina is usually a great singer. But her voice tonight was all over the place. I’m with Jade. They both stunk.
Christina sounded awful. Way too many runs, and the scream-singing was pitchy. Kudos to her for singing live, but it’s the National Anthem. Learn the lyrics.
Also didnt Lea Michelle lip synch? Usually they do at the super bowl.
No she did not lip sync
Let’s face it, if Lea tried to sing her part with the epic dive-tude of Xtina, she would’ve been called an attention whore, trying to outdo her. Lea can do killer, but here she sang beautifully, and was stil conservative. It was about the song and the event, not her.
Amen baby!
Pretty much this.
Except not really. Lea can’t touch Christina at all, and to compare the two is meaningless. As far as singing beautifully, not so much. Can you not hear how off-pitch she was throughout the song?
Except that Lea can, any time Lea performing “Mama who Bore Me” or “Whispering” (the two solos from the role she originated) is better than Christina Aguilera singing her entire catalogue. Christina Aguilera is good for pop, Lea is good for Broadway… so that pretty much says who is the better singer.
Your comment is complete BS. Stop trying to act like your opinion is fact.
and yet you said nothing about the ¿person? I responded to who said, as a fact, that “Lea can’t touch Christina at all”; for me, let’s just agree that we like different styles, but don’t say bs like that.
@phylosaccount – being on Broadway doesn’t necessarily make one a better singer. Christina Applegate did Broadway and I’m sure she is not a better singer than Xtina. BUT Christina sounded horrible and I’m a fan. I know Lea M. has a good voice but her performance was underwhelming. She could’ve performed it better.
@mari: But the difference between Lea Michele and Christina Applegate was that Applegate was already a star. It was probably stunt casting (something B’way is a huge fan of). Lea, on the other hand, is from Broadway, not Hollywood. She was on Broadway because she could sing, not because it might draw crowds to the show (like I suspect might have been the reason for Applegate’s casting). So you can’t really compare the two.
However, I agree with the rest of your comment.
Lea sang. She didn’t scream. She performed. Christina, on the other hand, was a hot tranny mess in all senses of the term. Granted, nerves can make people go off key, but she was having major pitch problems in the second half of the song. She was the antithesis of good.
I hardly recognized the song. If Christina had focused on the lyrics – and making the anthem mean something – rather than figuring out where her next run was going, she might not have messed up.
That one song was almost as long as the half-time show.
I thought both were amazing. Yeah, Christina screwed up a line, but I’d rather hear someone of her caliber screw up than hear someone less talented perform without mistakes.
I’d rather have the song done right…regardless of who is preforming.
Agreed. Big names don’t impress people as much as big performances.
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